Dearabby_84

Following: That sounds interesting!:)

It would be awesome if they would enforce the towel on the beach chair rule and remove after 30 min, if left unattended that entire time.

I'd also love to see the Casino smoke free, as I'm asthmatic, but sometimes get the itch to gamble ;)

Also a little deeper, but incredibly important ..... I'd like to see more policies in place or implemented better for when travellers are in port, kind of a plan B if things go wrong. We encountered a really nice person (while getting back on the ship), who was sailing as well and she was assaulted while in port. We helped her onto the ship, I called guest services and they didn't really know what to do. I think they should have policies in place, so there is a guideline on how to handle these situations, or if there are policies, a better training/or update for staff on how to address/what to do. I think it was an incredibly difficult situation for anyone to encounter, but it would have been good to have a plan for the person. To reduce the deer in headlights look.

Another cool thing from Hub, is you can add events into the calendar on your phone. So lets say there's a trivia show you want to watch, when you click on it you can add it onto your calendar (at least I could on my iPhone), I could view my Sail'n'nSign account, there was dining info and there was an option to view photos from Pixels (didn't work when I tried though). You can also send photos you take to the ship directly, and they put the pics on the large screen, which is neat! I think Hub is a fantastic idea and hopefully more people will utilize its chat feature (additional $5) and there will be less walkie talkies on the ship as they get a little annoying and can be noisy.

Happy travels :)

That's awesome! The Magic is beautiful! We've sailed on her this year and we had a blast!

I'm not a seasoned cruiser, only going on my third this November. We've only been on Carnival , we are early 30's and I found the age group on the ship to be great! There were young and old and it never seemed too crazy party-wise! I never felt uncomfortable and found the group of travellers to be really nice and respectful! The excursions were plentiful and a little cheaper, compared to a friend who went on RCL same excursion and she paid $20 more PP. It's a great option and you get excellent bang for you buck.

On the website you can add/remove who will join in on the excursion. We were able to book DH for golf, while me and the kids booked a beach getaway :) When you click add to cart, it'll give an option to add guests.

If it's not working, you could always call Carnival and book over the phone too :)

My brother-in-law was playing Candy Crush and Clash of Clans (not sure about Fantasy Football though) on our sailing in March, he didn't have any complaints, but noticed a difference in speeds at different times of the day. By the 3rd day he stopped though, so much to do on board :)

I'm really glad Carnival has updated it though :D

I've read through this post and comments and like the points for both sides. We aren't huge drinkers, but realistically drink 7-8 a day, maybe more, maybe less. Have tried both options. I did like not having to worry about the bar bill. Our second cruise we got Cheers, first one we didn't as my DH thought it may be a better fit. I didn't like worrying about what kind of bar tab we were running and a couple of times, I got grouchy with him about it. The final tab was less than what Cheers would have been, by $60-ish. I'd rather pay it and have the comfort of knowing our drinks are covered and I'm more open to trying something new. Like the rose Champagne in the steakhouse (I think it was around $20), it was excellent, I never would have tried it, without having Cheers. Knowing that Cheers has been revised, it's seriously a no-brainer for me.

I can understand it not being the most economical choice for some, it's a personal decision. My sister + hubby (drink wine) were on the same cruise as us and she did not have cheers, their bar tab was over $1000 for a week, she was kicking herself for not getting it. :eek:

I'd like to know where people find price drops too.

There's 2 ways I know of to check for a price drop. You could do a mock booking on carnival website of your sailing date or you could also check on the following link

https://www.carnival.com/BookingEngine/FareViewer/

I like the fareviewer and check it once a week or so

Will the bars give unopened cans of soda?

Yup! In our experience if we asked them not to open cans of soda or even beer, they happily obliged :)

I think it may depend on the staff

I have already bought the Cheers package for my husband and I. Does Carnival allow passengers to bring on Soda. It is my first Carnival cruise and I like having a diet pepsi in the morning in my room.

Yes, we brought a 12 pack of unopened cans of pop each (2 in total) and had no issues, they may just open to the package to confirm they are all soda.

My DH is very similar, he would prefer to spend $ on tangible items as opposed to a holiday. Having said that, he knows how much I look forward to getting away and once we do, he has a blast and has not regretted any of our holidays. Plus a happy wife is a happy life, right? :D

My guess is once you guys get away, maybe you will recruit him and he will become an avid cruiser/vacationer or maybe not! Either way, you never know unless you try it right?

I do recommend prepaying all you can, gratuities, excursions, have some cash for sail and sign for photos, drinks, speciality restaurant so he won't be so focused on spending on the ship.

You could try and save some cash on excursions, by booking with the providers directly as opposed to Carnival, or see if you can find identical excursions for cheaper and provide the info to Carnival to credit the difference. (We has success when we did it for one of our excursions), also if you drink wine, you can each bring a bottle on (unsure of the size) and you can bring unopened cans of soda too! Also if your booking has price protection, monitor the Carnival website, I check once a week, if your sailing goes cheaper you could get the difference in the form of a credit from Carnival for your sail n sign account.

Good luck and have a fantastic holiday! :)

We were in an inside cabin for our first cruise and it wasn't bad. It was nice and dark during the evenings and early morning and the cabin lights inside were bright enough for us during the day. You could always bring a night light though, if you don't want to leave the bathroom light on, that way if you're up in the middle of the night you're not tripping over things :)

I can agree with some of the other posters, in regards to financially saving the $$$ on the cabin, gives you more to spend on excursions, etc. Our second sailing we went with a balcony, similar time of year + same western caribbean cruise on the same ship and we paid almost $500 more (for the 4 of us).

Really cool!!! Thanks for sharing!

I appreciate that you took the time to write this review. We all have our own experiences while cruising and that's ok! No need to attack or pick apart your review :)

You can get customized decals made for them on Etsy. I just ordered 2 for my husband and I for out cruise in September. Just search for Yeti decals on Etsy.

Thanks for the tip!!!!

My son has motion sickness and a slew of allergies, so we were hesitant to give him any meds. We ended up booking in the middle of the ship, on a lower floor, he had no motion sickness in the room. We picked up seabandz that he wore for around the ship and we had no problems! I did bring gravel with ginger for myself though just in case.

In Cozumel, there is an excursion called The Amazing Race! Super fun and very exciting!

I wonder if the price of sailings on the Vista will go down when the Horizon is released .....

I plan on bringing my Yeti tumbler and husbands Yeti Cozy. We are big campers and they keep our drinks COLD!

That's a good idea to label them! Does anyone have recommendations of where to get decals or labels for them? Want something that will stay on very well :)

My sons Swell got grabbed on our last cruise, I'm thinking a label may have deterred them. It was sitting on a cabana chair with our towels, sunscreen and sunglasses, while I went up to get a drink. They only took the Swell!?! Not the Raybans sitting right beside it :confused:

I've had cheers, never included a free insulated cup :(

They did have a cup you could buy only if you had cheers, I think it was $10 or $15

I'm going to be more involved with the on-ship activities! I've never really took part in them and next cruise that will change.

I'm also going to go out of my way to talk to more people, I'm pretty reserved so its stepping out of my comfort zone :eek:

We've booked a Villa in HMC for November on the Glory. That makes me really nervous now. Is there a way to section it off yourself? Probably not?

We have a group of 8 of us, so maybe implement a rule that there's always someone there.....

I think that's just awful that people were stealing like that! So disappointing!

We were on the Magic in January, for a 7 day (3 port) cruise. We purchased Cheers and it was worth it for us, as I drink Margaritas, Pina Coladas and wine. DH drinks beer, still found it worth it as he'd have 7-8, plus pop was included. I found it was nice to not have a surprise bar bill at the end haha!

We are cruising this November and they have updated the Cheers Program, it is even more worth it now, with all the new additions. Honest Tea, Speciality Coffees, Milkshakes, Gatorade, Energy Drinks, etc.

One thing to be mindful of is that each person over 21 in your cabin must purchase and also you cannot use it at any ports, even Half Moon Cay where you can use you sail and sign card :(

Also if you by in advance of the cruise it's a little cheaper, you can also get it on your second day on the ship so only pay for 6 days at a bit higher rate.